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Kolchak Putsch
The 'Kolchak Putsch ' was an attempted coup d'etat launched in the closing months of 1924 by supporters of Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, the former commander-in-chief of the Provisional All-Russian Government during the Russian Civil War. Though ostensibly aimed at toppling the regime of Alexander Kerensky, who was seen by many Russians as unworthy of leading the country after the failures of the first Provisional Government and his willingness to concede to German demands, it drew on diverse sources of resentment against the fledgling Russian Republic Background Though the Russian Civil War formally concluded in the early months of 1920, Russia was left in a catastrophic state after six years of war. The Whites had emerged victorious from the Civil War, but rebuilding the country took more than force of arms, and this was further complicated by the humiliating demands of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, which was forced on the Russian Republic just as it had been on the Bolsheviks two years earlier. By the terms of the treaty, Russia was forced not only to surrender huge swathes of its former western territories in Poland, Ukraine, White Ruthenia, the Baltics, the Caucasus, and Finland, but also to pay indemnities to the victorious Central Powers. Though this was grudgingly accepted by the war-weary Russian public and leaders alike, it was a source of tremendous discontent, especially in the Germanophobic Russian military. It was a small miracle that the disparate White Armies had managed to unite behind a broadly pro-Central Powers policy out of greater interest in defeating the Bolsheviks, but with the Red threat gone, this alliance of convenience disappeared almost overnight. Conspiracy Though anti-German sentiment was the seed of discontent, the birth of an organized, anti-Kerensky movement was born in the shared anxieties of conservative military and business circles, who watched with growing concern as Kerensky implemented many elements of his political program, which borrowed heavily from the Socialist Revolutionaries' playbook, albeit not to the extremes of Maria Spiridonova and Viktor Chernov. The various Cossack Hosts likewise grew increasingly wary of the government in Petrograd, fearing that a SR majority would strip them of their traditional rights and privileges on behalf of their territories' vast, non-Cossack populations. Despite the Putsch's eventual moniker, Alexander Kolchak was a late addition to the conspiracy, as he had been largely content to sit on his laurels in the aftermath of the Civil War. He was, however, the natural figurehead for an anti-German, anti-Kerenskyist coup, as he had already proven himself as a Russian Cincinnatus, who had made hard choices in war-time before relinquishing them in peace. Feeling assured that the Russian military would overwhelmingly side with him over Kerensky, Kolchak signed-on enthusiastically with the plotters. The Cossacks, despite their key role in the coming uprising, had diverse and often unclear motivations. Ataman Pyotr Krasnov, despite a well-known reputation for his cooperation with the Germans during the Civil War, signed on with his Kuban counterpart, Alexander Filimonov, out of shared concerns for the safety of Cossack privileges, as well as continuing resentment over their treatment by fellow White generals in the past. Much the same could be said of Ataman Dutov of the Orenburg Cossacks, who valued his past service with Kolchak, and shared concerns over the Russian government's rapprochement with the Central Asian Turkic peoples over the Cossacks' concerns. The Czechoslovak Legion was the final part of the puzzle, and its concerns were driven overwhelmingly by hatred for the Central Powers, who continued to occupy their homelands, and while some Legionnaires had returned clandestinely over the years, the majority remained in exile in Russia, at the threat of facing trial as traitors back home. Putsch The date for the Putsch was set for November 14th, 1924, and it began without issues. Kolchak-aligned Russian and Czechoslovak soldiers surrounded the Winter Palace and other key locations of Petrograd, and telegraph offices were seized to announce the immediate arrest of Kerensky on charges of treasonous profiteering and corruption from deals made with the Germans. Meanwhile, the Cossack forces of Atamans Krasnov and Dutov deployed across Southern Russia and Central Asia, chiefly as a show of force to inspire confidence among the rest of the Russian military. The response, however, shocked Kolchak and his backers. Rather than rally to his side, the overwhelming majority of Russian enlisted soldiers and even officers refused to join the putsch, and while they refused to open fire on the putschists, no help was extended from that corner. Kolchak immediately laid the blame for this on the shoulders of General Lavr Kornilov, who, despite himself having launched a coup against Kerensky in 1917, refused to help Kolchak out of lingering resentment for not being chosen as White commander-in-chief during the Civil War. More plausibly, Kornilov and the rest of Russia's military high command likely realized that antagonizing the Germans while Russia was in such a weak state would simply make the situation worse, and that Kerensky was a necessary evil to moderate the demands of the still-strong Socialist presence in the country. Regardless of their motivations, Russia's military largely stood by and watched as the Putschists tried to seize power. Though Kerensky would claim credit for it in later years, it is unlikely any of his statements from the besieged Winter Palace had made it out to the wider world before mass demonstrations paralyzed Russia's cities. Countrywide strikes were called, and those Putschists outside the major cities found themselves stranded as railroad workers sabotaged their attempts to move. The Putsch in Petrograd would last less than 48 hours, as loyalist military units and public protest convinced Kolchak's supporters to lay down their arms peacefully in exchange for amnesty. Aftermath Within two weeks, the Cossacks had also all agreed to stand down, albeit with great trepidation for the future. Ataman Dutov was too well ensconced in Central Asia and too beloved by his men to be peacefully removed, and so he was left alone. Much the same could be said of Krasnov and his supporters in the south, who rallied the threat of radical Cossack independence to forestall rash action by the Russian government. Nevertheless, it was likely the German government's own guarantee of a peaceful resolution in southern Russia which saved Krasnov's regime, as Mitteleuropa had much to gain with the lingering threat of a Cossack quasi-state. As for Kolchak himself, the Admiral and his closest supporters fled east to the Japanese Primorye, later renamed to the Transamur the last bastion of "Entente" controlled Russia, wherein he would lay claim to the title of legitimate ruler of Russia. ru:Путч Колчака Category:Russia Category:Russian-related topics